Connor extends goal streak to 4, Jets defeat Sabres

WINNIPEG -- Kyle Connor extended his goal streak to four games and also had an assist for the Winnipeg Jets in a 4-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres at Canada Life Centre on Friday.

“As a group, our details and our compete, some of the things that maybe I've talked about in the past that weren't up to speed, I thought tonight as a whole we did a better job,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. “As much as you saw their speed, I thought we did a really good job of getting numbers back whenever possible. I just thought it was a solid game where we forced them to play in their end a lot more, certainly more than we did down in Buffalo and we were rewarded for it."

Cole Koepke and Gabriel Vilardi each had a goal and an assist for the Jets (14-12-1), who have points in three of four (2-1-1). Eric Comrie made 34 saves.

“He’s a fantastic goalie,” Koepke said. “And (he) showed it again tonight. He continues to lead us from the back end again.”

Jason Zucker scored for the Sabres (11-13-4), who won 5-1 against the Jets in Buffalo on Monday. They have lost four of six (2-4-0), including the first two games of a six-game road trip. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 19 saves.

“I thought we deferred to some cute plays tonight, especially, even late in the third period,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. “We're right in the slot and we passed off some plays. But we handed them two goals at the same time. I mean, we gave them a 2-on-0. We gave them a penalty shot. They didn't give us those opportunities.”

Connor made it 1-0 Jets at 4:24 of the first period, scoring on his own rebound in the slot by sliding the puck under Luukkonen.

“I think there were some really good examples of that where we got zone time, and not just [Connor’s] line,” Arniel said. “The other lines were doing a good job with it (too)."

Zucker's power-play goal tied it 1-1 at 14:44, jamming in a rebound in front from a Josh Norris one-timer. It was his third power-play goal in as many games.

“We're not here for moral victories,” Zucker said. “We didn't do enough. We didn't do enough to win. We've got to be better.

“When you're not feeling it on offense, you've got to work harder. You've got to get around the net, you’ve got to get pucks there. You've got to be willing to go to the dirty areas and be willing to just fight for one to go off your [back side], go off something, get it in the net. And I don't think we have enough of that.”

Tanner Pearson scored on a breakaway to put the Jets ahead 2-1 at 2:22 of the second after he and Koepke created a turnover near the blue line in Winnipeg's defensive zone.

“It was a lot of skating. Coming back, good coverage kind of led to the turnover,” Pearson said. “[Koepke] is in a good spot to force it from going east to west and made a good pickoff play there.”

Sabres forward Alex Tuch said: “It's a whole different game if I don't turn that puck over on the blue line. So, I put a lot of this game on myself and I needed to be better. I just can't allow things like that. I can't have stuff like that creeping into my game, and I know better. Yeah, that just can't happen.”

Luukkonen kept it 2-1 when he stopped Adam Lowry on a penalty shot at 10:18 of the second period.

Koepke extended it to 3-1 at 18:42. He settled Morgan Barron’s cross-ice pass and went forehand-backhand around Luukkonen's left pad.

“That’s a fantastic pass and a high-end play,” Koepke said. “That’s just the kind of plays that Barron can make. I’m lucky to play with him.”

It was Koepke's first goal of the season and first as a member of the Jets.

“It’s huge for us,” Koepke said of the two goals his line with Barron and Pearson produced. “We haven’t quite had a game like that for us this year. We’ve been just really working at it and have just been trying to continue to build our game. It was great for us as a line, and the team was rolling as well, so it’s even better when it comes in a win.”

Scheifele appeared to score for Winnipeg at 13:24 of the third period when he banked in a rebound short side off Luukkonen after Neal Pionk’s point shot deflected off the end boards. Buffalo challenged for offside, however, and the goal was overturned after video review.

“[Our top players] do have to produce,” Ruff said. “You know, it might be just time to shake up, (a) big shakeup of the lines and try to get something going.”

Vilardi scored into an empty net at 19:26 for the 4-1 final.

“We knew that they were going to come out and be physical and try to play with a lot more energy than they did last game against us,” Tuch said. “But I thought we had a lot of possession, I thought we had a lot of good opportunities, but we just needed to make it harder on their goalie and harder on the defensemen.”

NOTES: Connor recorded his sixth career goal streak of at least four games to tie Scheifele for the second most in franchise history, behind only Ilya Kovalchuk (17 times). ... Zucker scored a power-play goal in his third straight game. Only three other Sabres players have a run of that length in the past 15 years: Rasmus Dahlin (three games in 2024-25), Tage Thompson (three in 2022-23) and Victor Olofsson (three in 2019-20). ... Connor recorded his 615th and 616th career points, passing Ilya Kovalchuk (615) for the third-most points in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers history.